Template:Featured Articles/35-2017

Moment of Awesome - Emma Frost/The White Queen: The White Queen has a graduation mission in mind for her new White Herald. Emma wasn't wearing the White Queen's regalia, but the white suit she wore was perfectly cut and perfectly fitted. Its severe lines and the tight blonde bun gave Emma the look of a quite displeased headmistress, ready to inflict punishment for some minor misdemeanor. Her smile at Hope, however, was warm - a Queen dispensing favours. "Herald," she said formally, inclining her head at Hope, even as the serving courtier left Hope's drink at her elbow and silently withdrew from the room. "I understand that you wish to start participating in the more... serious aspects of being a member of the Inner Court. Not just all of the parties," Emma grinned, a quirk of her eyebrow expressing her opinion of the vapidity of some of those parties. "I have a task for you that should allow us to test your capabilities as Herald. If you have time, of course." "I did not appeal to become Herald just to attend parties, my queen." Hope replied with a similar level of formality, dressed in a cream sheath dress of her own. "I wish to show what I can do. My time is at your disposal." "Excellent," replied Emma. "Because I have a trip to Pennsylvania planned for your near future. The University of Pennsylvania to be precise. How much do you know about genetic editing, Hope?" "I am assuming it's a form of genetic engineering, but otherwise I do not know much about it." Hope made a mental note to read herself into at least some of the basics as soon as she could. Other conclusions she could easily draw though. "They are doing research in this at the University of Pennsylvania? In a specific direction that does not suit the HFC?" "Indeed they are," replied Emma. "The majority of what they do is not of any particular concern, but they have been doing some very interesting work using CRISPR and Cas-9 complexes to modify genes. Which is all very well when they're modifying kidney cells, but not when they are showing some interest in modifying the X-gene. Well," Emma temporized a little, "the grant is not for modifying the X-gene. But what is being researched is close enough that, if the results run a certain way, there could end up being a risk to mutant-kind. Which does not suit the Hellfire Club. At all." She smiled brightly. "So, as White Herald, I would like you to make sure that the results don't run in that certain way." Hope nodded thoughtfully. "The research you are speaking about... is it still in full progress or is it nearing its end stage? Each would require different measures to be taken." “The Professor in charge of the laboratory has assessed some interesting results from some work his grad student is doing,” replied Emma. “He’s asked for a number of new runs to be done, to see if the results can be replicated. Fortunately, before he could undertake the task, his grad student became suddenly rather ill. Ill enough that she won’t be back to the laboratory until early next week, which is about when the really rather unpleasant side effects of the cocktail of drugs Sebastian managed to get some lackey to put into her system wear off. So we have a few days before you need to get to Pennsylvania and make sure those results can’t be replicated.” "So there are basically two tasks that need to be completed. Be certain those results cannot be replicated... And ideally... perhaps putting something into place so that future results can be monitored and influenced long distance if needed?" Hope raised a questioning eyebrow at Emma. "How are the experiments that need to be disrupted set up? Is it purely computer based or is there also a physical component that needs to be sabotaged?" “There will be an thermocycler full of little tubes whirring away in a quiet laboratory. The fortunate part is that it appears the thermocycler isn’t supervised while it runs its program, which gives you a little more leeway. The less fortunate part is that you won’t be able to open the thermocycler to access the tubes until the program has finished running. Even with all the resources of the Club at your disposal and Doug’s technical wizardry, the safety risks of opening an thermocycler while it’s running are too high. So you will have a very limited time window to be able to get into the laboratory and replace the tubes with ones that will provide more… useful results. Useful for our purposes.” Emma smiled dryly. “And while you’re waiting for the thermocycler to finish running, you might be able to find the time to hack into the relevant computers. Or that may come after. I have been assured by Doug and Julian that you have very capable hands, so I am willing to leave the details to those hands.”